Emotional Inception Rule: give your cold email reader the right emotions
"I know you're busy but..."
"Maybe you feel nervous clicking reply on a random cold email..."
What my client was doing made 100% sense -- especially given how a copywriter approached words and strategy and objections…
He was heading off an objection before it blossomed into a full-fledged roadblock.
Only there was one tiny little problem.
By putting an emotion into the email, he was invoking the Emotional Inception Rule.
That rule, which is a big secret due to its immense power, is stated as:
Whatever emotion you put on the page is implanted into your reader's emotional state, much like dreams inside the dreamer’s head a la the movie Inception.
If you want your cold email reader -- or whoever is reading what you're writing -- to feel a certain emotion, you write that emotion on the page.
Thriller novelists do this:
"Her heart pounded as she crept down the hallway. She had never been so scared in her life."
Mystery writers do this:
"He wondered what the connection was between the two victims. He frowned, mystified."
Heck, I do this when I'm starting a new relationship, like with a new client or partner:
"So excited about our new venture!"
Why does this work?
Because of mirror neurons.
Essentially, mirror neurons respond to actions that we observe in others.
The interesting part is that mirror neurons fire in the same way when we actually recreate that action ourselves, found a study done by Sourya Acharya and Samarth Shukla, both of DMIMS University.
Meaning:
Your brain can't tell the difference between an action you see and an action you physically take.
How to use the Emotional Inception Rule:
Write the emotions on the page that you want your reader to feel.
They'll catch that emotion and feel the emotion you're persuading them to feel.
For example, you could say in your cold email:
So excited about how you’ll use your new case studies in your marketing!
Looking forward to working with you.
I can’t wait to see what big things cold emails do for your business.
Use emotions wisely.
If you liked this post, you’ll love The WARM Client Method or Cambium.
Featured Photo Credit: Liana Mikah